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Elysium
'''Elysium '''is a planet located within the Sylust Nebula. Over the course of a history spanning nearly four thousand years, Elysium has become a world at the center of modern galactic society. In modern times, Elysium is the capital of the Elysian Collective, a collection of star systems within the Sylust Nebula that comprise one of the three great powers. Its convenient location relative to the other inhabited systems in the Core Worlds has made it an integral part of a large number of trade routes that span the great powers, and the willingness of the native Elysians to accept immigrants has exposed a once-humble world to many pivotal moments in interstellar history. Originally settled by the Architects at the behest of the Vy'Tiir, Elysium underwent terraforming nearly four thousand years ago to make the planet's environment more suitable for the Vy'Tiir, who would migrate to the planet at a later time to expand the reach of their empire. This plan never came to fruition, as Architects lost contact with the Vy'Tiir soon afterward, as a result of the culling of their shared homeworld, Irithyll. Subsequent political strife within the Architect caste resulted in those loyal to the Vy'Tiir cause being exiled offworld or eliminated, with those that remained taking the planet as their own. Thus, Elysium's history as a world of its own began in earnest. Over time, the native Elysians returned to the stars, colonizing nearby worlds and making contact with numerous other intelligent civilizations. Some of these civilizations would ally themselves with Elysium, exchanging resources for protection. Others, while uninterested in becoming client worlds, would nonetheless interact with Elysium in communication, trade, migration and warfare. All the while, sentients migrated to Elysium in the billions, eager to have their roots firmly planted on a swiftly-growing world whose importance was quickly becoming evident. In the present day, Elysium is home to an urban sprawl that covers nearly a quarter of the planet's surface, and has become a planet that more often than not finds itself at the center of events that continue to define the current era of history. Elysium's place as the hub of modern interstellar society and trade has made it an attractive location for many of the megacorporations to establish a presence. These companies, over the course of time, have become intimately involved with the Elysian government, for better or worse. Astronomical Properties Elysium is a terrestrial planet, the second orbiting the star Forge, a typical white main sequence star approximately halfway through its life. Formed billions of years ago from the protoplanetary disk that encircled the newborn star, Elysium is rich in dense, heavy elements that migrated toward the inner edge of this disk during the formation of the planets. Elysium's composition contains large quantities of iron, magnesium, gold, platinum, and numerous other metals that in most cases are found only in planets orbiting extremely closely to their parent stars. Given Elysium's orbital distance from its star, this composition is unusual, and it has been theorized that at some point in the planet's past its orbit was altered, potentially by an impact event involving another protoplanet. Atypical of most terrestrial planets, Elysium possesses an extreme axial tilt, being angled nearly 79 degrees away from vertical to its orbital plane. As a result, Elysium spends long periods of time during its orbit with a large portion of one hemisphere constantly exposed to sunlight, with the other cast into darkness. This phenomenon causes extreme changes in temperature across the seasons, and would certainly make the planet completely uninhabitable were it not for the climate control grid present across its surface. The unusual day-night cycle has unique lifestyle consequences for the planet's residents, as do the seasons. Elysian summers are characterized by scorching heat, winters by bitter cold and relentless blizzards, with the spring and autumn seasons host to short, but intense thunderstorms and torrential rainfall. The cause of this axial tilt is suspected to be due to an ancient impact event, possibly the same that resulted in the shifting of Elysium's orbit. The presence of water on Elysium has long been a topic of debate, as Elysium's geological features appear to lack evidence of the erosion that would occur over the course of millions of years. In truth, water was brought to the planet by the Architects during their terraforming efforts, not only to support the plant and animal life that would come later, but to establish a hydrosphere and weather system, as well as introduce water vapor into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, allowing Elysium to retain daytime heat during its long nights. History Elysium was chosen by the Vy'Tiir for terraforming and colonization, seeking to expand their empire into a new region of the galaxy. To make the planet suitable for the Vy'Tiir, the Architects were sent ahead of them to oversee terraformation efforts.